It may have been tough to see some of the old favorites such as Peter Bondra and Steve Konowalchuk go to other teams, but the Washington Capitals’ prospects for the future look considerably brighter after last season’s dump was completed.
Hockeysfuture.com, a Web site devoted to scouting and covering NHL prospects and rating the teams that draft them, has moved the Caps to No.1 after evaluating where teams stand after the 2004 draft.
Of course, whether there is an NHL by the time these players are ready for the big league is another question. The owners’ lockout of players is 31 days old today with no talks scheduled. There have been no talks between the two sides since Sept.9, with the sidelined players missing their first full paycheck yesterday.
Hockeysfuture.com rated the top 20 prospects for all 30 NHL clubs plus other players the teams have the rights to. Some, such as center Brian Sutherby, 22, were considered too old for inclusion by the rating service.
Perhaps the best indicator for the Caps’ future is that the team has three goalies ranked among its top 12 prospects. Maxime Ouellet, ranked third overall, is the starter in Portland, Maine, in the American Hockey League; Maxime Daigneault, ranked 10th, is the starter with South Carolina in the East Coast Hockey League and Rastislav Stana, ranked 12th, is spending this season in the Swedish Elite League.
Better yet, a fourth prospect, Justin Eddy out of Quinnipiac College, has come on very strong since joining the Caps last summer and is with Portland.
It did not hurt the Caps’ overall rating to own the rights to Alexander Ovechkin, the heralded left wing now playing for Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Super League. Washington grabbed him with the first overall pick in last June’s draft. Ovechkin, who just turned 19, is billed by some as the best Russian player ever drafted and perhaps the best player overall to come out of the draft since Mario Lemieux in 1984.
Alexander Semin, another Russian left wing, is rated second by the service. Semin has been suspended by the Caps for failing to honor his contract — he was told to report to Portland in September — but is playing well for Lada Togliatta in the Russian Super League.
Defenseman Steve Eminger and right wing Eric Fehr, the Caps’ top picks in 2002 and 2003, respectively, are ranked fourth and fifth. Eminger is on the top defensive pair in Portland, and Fehr is tied for the goal-scoring lead (10 in 11 games) for Brandon, Saskatchewan, in the Western Hockey League.
All told, 10 of the first 17 Caps prospects rated are with Portland while another is in South Carolina, two are in Russia, one in Sweden and three are still playing major junior hockey.
The remainder of Hockeysfuture.com’s top 20 Caps prospects and where they are:
6. Jared Aulin, C, Portland; 7. Tomas Fleischmann, LW, Portland; 8. Shaone Morrisonn, D, Portland; 9. Jakub Klepis, C, Portland; 10. Daigneault; 11. Jonas Johansson, RW, Portland; 12. Stana; 13. Jeff Schultz, D, Calgary (WHL); 14. Mike Green, D, Saskatoon (WHL); 15. Boyd Gordon, RW, Portland; 16. Nolan Yonkman, D, in Portland rehabbing from knee surgery); 17. Owen Fussey, RW, Portland; 18. Chris Bourque, RW, Boston University; 19. Johnny Oduya, D, Hammerby, Sweden; 20. Oscar Hedman, D, MoDo, Sweden.
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